Travel Review: Melbourne CBD

About three weeks ago, I went to Melbourne City for five days. As I live outside the metro area and used to seeing farmland, this was an interesting experience for me. This is a journal of what I did. 

Day 1: 

I travelled into the city via train and exited at Southern Cross Station. I was with a group of other country-people who were also exploring the city. We started the day by doing an amazing race-like challenge where we given clues of what we have to photograph. 

For lunch, I ate at Your Thai restaurant. I ordered vegetable dumplings and a green tea milkshake (I had no idea that existed). Then to finish the day, we walked to the Eureka Tower (tallest tower in Melbourne and 2nd tallest residential building in Australia). This gave us a better understanding of how the city is set out. Many people in the group went on the edge, an experience where you a put in a glass box that extends out of the building, this gives you a stronger sense of how high the building is because it has a glass floor. I didn't want to do this for two reasons: I am not fond of heights and I didn't want to pay $10 for a glass floor.
Going on the terrace was scary, because it was so high up, the winds were very strong and when I was taking photos I was worried that my phone would fall out the guard. 

Volunteering at Wycliffe

Two weeks ago, I volunteered at Wycliffe's national centre in Kangaroo Grounds. Wycliffe is a non-government organisation which translates the Bible into languages that have no written Bible. 

Wycliffe was founded by an American named Cameron Townsend in 1934 after a mission trip to Guatemala where a native Guatemalan man asked him "Why doesn't your God speak my language?" when he was distributing Spanish Bibles. He named the organisation after John Wycliffe, who translated the Bible from Latin to Old English in 1382. Priests and other members of the Catholic Church at that time, thought he was starting a cult. 

Figures about languages in relation to the Bible (2013):

Section                                Number of languages

Complete Bible                  around* 518

New Testament (only)       around 1275

Some scripture                   around 1005

Currently in progress         around 2075

None                                    around 1967

Altogether, there are around 6877 living languages. *Around because linguists have discovered some languages are dialects and vice vera. 

Day 1. 
When I first arrived, I had an open mind, and didn't know what to expect. I was taught the basic history of Wycliffe; what its goal is and about EQUIP training. Later that day, I did a basic language class which included learning to pronounce different sounds in the international phonetic alphabet (such as clicks, the Indonesian 'p' sound as well as the 't' and 'd' sounds found in Indian languages), doing language puzzles and a language understanding game, where I was taught the names of objects in a language (in this case, Northern Tanna) but not allowed to verbalise the name. Then, I had to  show my understanding by picking up the object the teacher called out. At the end of the day, I helped set up a conference room and set out towels, soaps and letters in the guest lodges. 

There was a heavy fog on the morning that I arrived at Wycliffe National Centre

Wycliffe and EQUIP national centre

10 reasons to learn Auslan (BANZSL)

En español

Auslan or BANZSL (British, Australian, New Zealand Sign Language) is a sign language which originates from a deaf sign language used in Britain during the 19th Century. Contrary to a common belief, not all sign languages are the same. For example, ASL (American Sign Language) is very different to BSL (British Sign Language). Also, signed languages are not just word for word spoken language signed but they have their own syntax, grammar and word origins. Also, some countries actually have sign language as one of their official languages, for example: New Zealand. 

I'm going to give you ten reasons to learn Auslan (the sign language in Australia).

Creative Common by Deaf Action 

Creative Common by Wycliffe South Africa

Where in the world?

This week I decided to give you (my blog readers) a challenge. I posted 3 pictures of the same city in the world and I would like you to write your guess what city it is in the comment section or in an email to me (if you know my email address). The answer will be revealed within the next 2 weeks as well as URL of the photos (for copyright reasons) as I have not taken these photos and they are creative commons on flickr. (Though, I would like to travel to that city and take photos like this). 

Good Luck guessing!

(Please email, facebook, tweet, text message or message in a bottle with this post's link to all your friends, if you like this post)

Travel Review: Cuckoo Restaurant - Photo Blog

On, Sunday I went to the Cuckoo for Christmas in July (sadly for us antipodeans we don't get a white Christmas). The Cuckoo is a smorgasbord buffet restaurant in Mt Dandedong which can become cold and it has snowed there in the past. It gives the impression that you are in a mountain forest in Germany.

What to chose, what to chose?

Serving 1

Serving 2

Serving 3

Serving 4 (starting to feel like
 'the very hungry caterpillar')

Liam, the Pancake maker

Impressive...

Sarah, who sang some songs from
'the sound of music', Christmas carols
and played the cow bells.

This is the world's biggest Cuckoo
clock (that works)

The building is a lot higher from the ground than
the photo makes it look.

The Cuckoo also has flags from around the world to welcome international guests.

Australia!

France

UK

Denmark and Poland

USA

Greece, India, Japan, Croatia and USA (again)

Vietnam, Hong Kong, Finland and Malaysia

Ireland, China, Estonia, Mauritius and Indonesia

Chile, China (again) and South Korea

Overall, I recommend going to the Cuckoo (on an empty stomach and feeling a bit cuckoo). :)


The Cuckoo Restaurant
http://www.cuckoorestaurant.com.au/
508 Mount Dandenong Tourist Road Olinda Victoria Australia 3788
Telephone: +61-3-9751 1003 
http://www.facebook.com/Cuckoo.Restaurant